6 must-have features for your expense reporting app
You’ve decided your business is ready to roll out an app to help manage employee spend and track expenses, but you’re not sure where to start. We’ve got you covered! We’ve highlighted a list of essential features that you should look for when comparing your options on the best expense management app on the market.
First, look for an app with accurate receipt scanning: The best expense reporting apps have precise and fast receipt scanning that requires little to no manual data entry for users. The ability to scan receipts with your phone’s camera helps save tons of time and minimizes the need to keep track of paper receipts when you or your employees are on-the-go for business travel.
Expensify pioneered the receipt scanning app space with its OCR technology, SmartScan. With a 98.6% accuracy rate, you’ll be able to rest easy knowing that the data scanned into the app is exactly what’s on your receipt. It can even detect currencies from around the world, so no matter where you are, your expense reports will always be accurate!
You’ll also want an app that offers flexible pricing: Whether you have 5 employees or 500, look for a pricing plan that works for you. The best solutions will usually offer either monthly or annual pricing, and will sometimes add in discounts or incentives to sweeten the deal. For example, Expensify offers customers a discount on their pricing if they use the Expensify Card for their corporate card solution, as well as 4% cashback!
A non-negotiable should be a user-friendly interface: Having an intuitive app is a must when managing company expenses! Look for a solution that offers an easy to use platform, with minimal hurdles for setting up expense management for your company. A good indicator of a user-friendly app is a solution that allows employees to submit expense reports quickly and easily for approval, without lots of red tape to close the books each month.
Make sure your app has the ability to customize approval workflows: Not every company approves expenses in the same way, which is why it’s important for your expense management solution to allow flexibility in your approval hierarchy set up. Perhaps one team needs to submit expenses to their manager for approval, but another might go straight to your accounting admin for final approval. Find a solution that is flexible in the options it offers for setting up your team!
You’ll also want to ensure your app has easy-to-use integrations: When looking for an expense management app, submitting and approving expenses are only half of the process - you’ll also likely need to reconcile these expenses in your favorite accounting system, like QuickBooks or NetSuite. To make the entire process from receipt scanning to reconciliation seamless, look for a solution that has a direct integration to your preferred accounting system. This way, each expense submitted by your employees can be coded and categorized to match what’s in your accounting system with no extra work.
Lastly, use an app that has a connected corporate card or reliable bank feeds: Your expense management solution should offer a good selection of banking and credit card connections or a connected corporate card, so tracking receipts and payments are as simple as possible. It shouldn’t be painful to pay your employees back, so choose a solution that makes connecting to your bank to reimburse your employees as easy as clicking a button!
Bonus points if the app offers a corporate card that directly links purchases on the card to an expense report for easy employee expense approvals. The Expensify Card is a great example of this, where employees simply swipe their card and an expense is automatically created for them - no manual entry required!
Ready to get started with the best expense reporting app on the market? If all of these criteria resonate with you, then Expensify will fit the bill as your expense reporting app of choice! To learn more about all of Expensify’s features, head over to use.expensify.com.
